Roxana Stroe performs at the Together! tent at the 2016 Liberty Festival in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

“Together! 2012 is a launch pad rocketing culture in Newham to the skies.” Disability Arts Online

Together! 2012 began as a free Disability Arts and Human Rights festival, organized by the UK Disabled People’s Council (UKDPC) in the main Host Borough of Newham to celebrate the Paralympics and Disability History Month. At the end of 2012, UKDPC helped to establish a social enterprise in Newham, Together! 2012 CIC, to take this work forward and make Newham into an international centre of excellence for Disability Arts as part of the 2012 Legacy. You can watch a recording of our ’10 years and more than 2012 events later’ event for Newham Heritage Month 2022 here.

Together! 2012 CIC is led by locally based disabled artists under the artistic direction of international disabled artist Dr Ju Gosling aka ju90. The Board is supported by Non-Executive Directors from the business, events and media industries; and by a Community Advisory Board, representing the interests and concerns of disabled people from across impairment, age and cultural groups.

We forefront Paralympic values of excellence, striving for achievement, international friendship and the triumph of the human spirit, and work to:

• Promote the rights of disabled people to access the arts on an equal basis, both as artists and as audience members, and to be resourced to organise and participate in their own cultural activities, as outlined in Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

• Promote and provide access to free high-quality, disabled-led arts events and activities for disabled people and their families, carers, PAs, support workers and companions, from the London Borough of Newham and beyond, particularly art and culture that reflects and relates to the experiences and world views of disabled people. This includes organizing events and activities directly; contracting to provide events and activities on behalf of third parties; and promoting events and activities organized by third parties.

• Promote activities where participants gain lasting benefits, including increased self-esteem and self-confidence and wider social networks, as well as increased skills and experience in the arts.

• Promote disabled artists and their work, both to disabled-majority and to inclusive audiences, in Newham, nationally, and internationally.

• Promote the development of and capacity build the Disability Arts sector in Newham and beyond, through the provision of support and expertise to existing disabled-led arts groups and the development of new groups and organizations.

• Promote the employment and self-employment of disabled people in the arts, including through the provision of employment, self-employment, training and volunteering opportunities, and the provision of opportunities to promote and sell artists’ and makers’ work.

• Promote access and inclusion for disabled people within ‘mainstream’ arts, including within arts education and training and through the provision of consultancy and training services, as well as campaigning and awareness-raising.

• Promote disabled people’s organizations, through joint working, the provision of activities at disabled-led events, and capacity building and other work to strengthen the sector, to ensure that disabled people have all of the support and services they require to be fully included in their communities and reach their full potential.

• Promote the wider values of the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, empowering disabled people by providing role models and encouraging them to visualise themselves as achievers and leaders and valued members of the community.

• Promote our learning more widely, so that the UK continues to develop as a centre of excellence for Disability Arts.

Click here to find out more about the policies and procedures that we use to further our aims and objectives. Click here to find out more about our access policy, and Click here to find details of the Locations we use.

We are always seeking resources to develop and expand our programme, and also need more volunteers to help us to deliver our activities. You can make a donation to support our work by clicking the ‘Donate’ button at the bottom of this page, or email us on info@together2012.org.uk or call 07973 252751 for more information or to volunteer.